Quarantined
by hideousbeauty
Summary: A new disease has broken out across Lima- and what appears to be the rest of the world now. When Quinn tests positive and her life hangs in the balance, she and Rachel escape together and find themselves living in hiding together in what is fast becoming an apocalyptic world.
1. Chapter 1

"What if I told you right now that everything could change in this instant? That everything could change, and we could go back to the way things had been? We... We never would have run into each other that day; we never would have had to escape together. We wouldn't be here. But they all would be. What would you say to that? Would you take it? Would you take that over this?" I felt tears welling over the edges of my eyes but somehow managed to hold it together long enough to finish speaking. My breathing was hot, heavy. My mouth was dry. It felt as though all f my strength was being used to speak and to somehow continue standing in front of her without wavering at either action. I felt my knees go weak and yet somehow they locked themselves into place, and I stood as firm as I possibly could. I knew I'd lose her after this. But... I couldn't just pretend that this wasn't killing me. Not anymore.

She then wrapped her arms like a noose around my neck and kissed the top of my head. "Honestly?" Her voice was low, raspy. I knew she needed a drink just as badly as I did. I knew we were risking so much to stop and do this. What I didn't know is why she'd given up protesting and why she was humoring me now long enough to even touch me, let alone answer me. I breathed her in. She smelled of sweat and dust and dirt. She smelled of death.

That year had started like any other year. Competitions were coming up as the new year began and the school year came closer to an end. We had all be frantically discussing the song list for this year, and no one seemed to agree. Some of the ideologies were split as far as priorities were concerned. A lot of the senior class was agreeing to focus on that aspect, their graduation, not their final competition. Some of the other members were focused on personal lives. There were couples joining together and claiming that whatever the other one wanted is what mattered on both ends. So, of course, we weren't getting anywhere. And why we were left alone at that time to discuss among ourselves a decision that should have been finalized and sorted by a faculty member was unclear to me then. And frustrating.

I had the perfect plan for the set list. I always did. But I was supposedly meant to let others and their ideas shine at least a small amount. Something about "teamwork"- a trait that I might have spent more time in now. Well, obviously no one there knew how to work as a team, and we were going nowhere fast as far as what we were actually supposed to be doing was concerned. But... Now, looking back, that all seems so minor to me now. It had been a year since the first death at this point. And no one seemed to even remember it happening. It was so freak, so sudden... Perhaps it shocked everyone too much to want to have to deal with it in such a small town. And now we were alone because Ms. Pillsbury had come down with something out of nowhere. And the only ones who seemed to remember anything about the death before and the similarities now were myself, Quinn Fabray- whom I found sitting over a stack of books in the library one afternoon, and Mr. Schuester- hence his absence now. But, of course, you chalk that up to worrying too much and jumping to conclusions, right? Right.

Either way, at the time, it didn't seem like we could do anything. And so, there I was, standing in a chair in front of everyone in the choir room trying to be heard over the dull roar of all the mixed voices, when the intercom chimed in and a voice we'd never heard before came over the speakers. "William McKinley High School students and staff, please remain calm and in your classrooms until further instruction. There is no need for panic, but we must inform you that a serious matter has come to your school. Again, please remain in your classrooms until further knowledge." And then the tents started to be put up. And students and staff were being escorted one room at a time into the gymnasium and into those white tents where something was happening that no one else knew about.

Some people left the tents and went to the right. And every now and again, someone exited and headed to the left. No one was allowed to tell us what was happening. And when eventually more and more people were herded to the left, the tents began taking us two at a time as if to hurry through whatever was happening. No one ever saw those taken to the left come back in. The ones to the right were given gray scrubs and a number and told to go to the cafeteria for dinner. Nothing else was being explained. So when she and I were taken into a tent together, and a long, thin needle was forced into each of our forearms... When a green light flashed on the machine connected to her and a red light flashed on mine... When they began shouting and herding her to the left with all of the others that had disappeared, and she looked to me frantically... We had no idea what we were so afraid of. Not really. But one look into her eyes, and I knew we both knew. So I reached out, and before anyone in the tents dressed in their disgustingly green scrubs knew what was happening- before I knew what was happening- I took off with her in tow.

And we hid. I'm still not sure how we managed to get away. Adrenaline kicked in; fear took over. Maybe the frantic moving to the cafeteria and those who were protesting- and being beaten down quite literally- was enough of a distraction for us to slip through. Either way, we barely made it out of the school building and managed to make it to the abandoned house hidden in the forest behind the school's football field that others used to smoke and do all sorts of illegal in- which I only knew about because of trying to find Quinn and her "Skank" friends. And we hid. There were sirens and people rushing by, looking everywhere. But people had long since forgotten about this place. When I realized I still had her hand, I tried to let go- a small blush I'd never admit to creeping along my cheeks. But she held fast. She didn't look over at me, but I could see the tear rolling down her cheek. I could still see the fear in her eyes. She was infected. And from where we hid, we watched as our entire town was quarantined.

* * *

**I'm very sorry for the first upload of this chapter looking like a complete wall of text. It wouldn't let me upload the file that I'd wrote this on, so I was simply copying and pasting. I suppose that it didn't end up as well as I'd hoped. Hopefully this fixes it, and if any of the other chapters upload like that, I promise to do my very best to fix them. Thank you!**


	2. Chapter 2

Perhaps a little back story is in order.

My name is Rachel Barbara Berry, and this was supposed to be my last year at McKinley High School. I was supposed to be moving to New York later this year to pursue my dreams of being a Broadway star. That's what I was. A star. Is that what I am? ...who knows anymore? I'd like to believe that I still am. But I haven't sang in... I suppose that's getting a little too present for a back story. Maybe I should just speak of someone else for once.

Quinn Fabray. She used to be head of the cheerleader. She was prom queen our junior year, and she hated everything about me. After a bunch of things happened in her life- all of which I do not know about- she came back to school with a nose ring, a pack of cigarettes, a tattoo, and pink hair. I used to think all of these things were clearly against school policy, but it was Quinn. I'm sure that if there was a heaven, Quinn would be allowed to walk right in, the gates left open for her. It was like she walked on a different level than the rest of us. She always had. I think she used to know it too, but... We all thought that she'd sort her life out and that this "Skank" phase would pass by rather quickly, but it never did. I think she started to hate me a little less, but... Maybe that was wishful thinking of a sort.

It'd been three days since we'd gotten away to the old, abandoned house covered in vines and riddled with who knows what sorts of bugs or snakes. From the view we had, we watched people search for us and appear to give up around the surrounding area. Maybe they thought we'd made it off campus and had turned their searching around town. They had to know that two teenage girls couldn't have gotten very far on foot. We watched as the school was emptied out in the distance. And we watched as countless people we'd grown up with- even though we couldn't see specific faces from here- were being brought to the football field and... forced to their knees to be shot. Right in front of us. Quinn kept me from yelling out, but I don't see how she managed to stay so silent.

We knew nothing else of the outside world right then. There was no radio or power, and our phones had long since died. I knew that I was getting antsy sitting here, not knowing anything outside our tiny shelter, but Quinn stayed quiet. Every time I spoke of leaving, she dismissed me with a look, not saying anything about it, and stayed quiet again. The only words we really exchanged in this time were sparse and unrelated, quick "Are you okay?"s and short nods for answers. Other than that, we stayed huddled down and not even close to each other a good bit of the time, never venturing outside of the living room in case the structure was unstable somewhere else. But it had been three days now.

"Quinn," I whispered as the sun went down on the third day, earning me a look over from hollowed out, hazel eyes. I'd been noticing that she'd started shaking and becoming paler. "We should go find food..." I looked down at my hands on the molded rug of the floor and took a deep breath. "I know," I started before she could. "We're safe here. I know, I know, but..."

"You're right." Her voice was quiet, rasp. She looked back out the window she never seemed to look away from and sighed quietly. "I know. I've been thinking of a way that we could manage." She looked back over at me and tried for a tiny smile. "It's getting dark. Let's just go now."

"Are you sure...?" She'd been so reluctant to even speak to me this entire time. Perhaps she was starting to act differently because of the lack of food or being anywhere else with anyone else for so long. But as I licked my lips and turned my face towards where she was looking before, I nodded with as much of a smile as I could manage. "Let's do it then. But first, we need a plan."

"Our own houses would be too obvious," She was the one too look down this time, making a fist as I saw her eyes fall to them. I was delighted that she wanted to leave now. Not for the food or for the chance to go out and see how much had changed since these three days, but... I was so sure that she would have given up already. The way she'd been acting lately... I was just glad to see that she wasn't quitting.

And so our adventure began. There was no way we could prepare anything. We had nothing; we had no idea what to even be prepared for. And so we just left. We weren't even sure where we were headed. But at this point, anywhere was better than here. And we knew we wouldn't last if it were to rain as it was. But... where was there to go at this point?

She'd mentioned not going back to our parents' because it being obvious, but I had to wonder if some of it was due in part to her parents obviously not going to be able to handle knowing that their daughter had fled from a quarantined area because she was found out to be infected. ...but thinking on this called my own sanity into question. Why was I travelling with her? Risking my life like this for an infected person? ...The only answers I had was that it was Quinn and that there just had to be a cure. There had to be.

And if we had to travel across America to find it, we were going to find this cure.


	3. Chapter 3

Silence was a must most of the time these days. Any sort of sound could attract so many things that we couldn't afford to let find us. When talking was an absolute must, it was shortened, whispered words in haste. The only other form of communication was hand signals. But most of the time, especially recently, there was no contact between us at all even though we were never more than a few feet away from each other. Every now and again, I found her crawling over to me in the dark of night, grabbing me gently and pulling me close. It was the only contact we ever made anymore, and I didn't dare bring it up or question it. We needed the touch for warmth on the colder nights anyway, but even on the warmer ones, I simply let my body collapse into hers. I knew she was using me to even remember human touch, but... Maybe I was using her as well. It was so hard to tell anymore.

It'd be coming up on five months soon. Or was it six? I don't think there was any way to tell anymore. Any sort of radio or television communications had long since stopped, and if we ever heard anything other than static from the little radio we'd found once awhile ago, it was the same emergency broadcast that had started about two weeks after the quarantine had spread over a good half the nation. Everyone was encouraged to visit the government official tents to be tested- though by this time everyone had been diagnosed one way or the other. People who were marked clear of infection were urged to join other refugees at the designated "safe houses" in major cities scattered across the nation.

Of course, most died on their way to these destinations.

As it turns out, those who were infected slowly started... turning. Into what, I can't explained. It was something I could only imagine coming straight out of those horror movies the boys at school used to watch. People started turning paler and losing all senses and human actions. Their bodies began to move slower, and I'd heard that all brain functions began to cease after a fever broke out in them. All of their thoughts were gone, and the only thing they focused on after that point was the most basic of human instincts- the need to feed.

What did they eat? ...flesh, I suppose. I wouldn't say brains. They seem to just eat the entire body- bones and all. Maybe it was just anything with a pulse that they felt some need to devour the entire thing. It was literally like being in a horror movie. I couldn't ever wrap my mind around that this was actually happening. But... How can you argue with something that was happening right in front of you?

Quinn tried to leave me after the news started spreading that this was happening. She tried to leave me quite a few times. I would just silently follow after her; both of us knowing that she couldn't afford to be yelling at me for too long. She kept asking me why I would want to stay with her, but I never really gave her an answer. I wasn't sure if I really had one that would make sense to her. Right now, she was still Quinn. Right now she was all I had left. Right now she was who I wanted to be with. If things got worse down the line, I would deal with it then.

Apparently they discovered that the infection was spread in two ways. Spores that, if inhaled, directly attacked the brain, and being bitten by or swapping any sort of bodily fluids with someone who had been infected. Where it came from still no one knew. Or maybe just no one would want to own up to being the cause for the deaths of so many. Little else was ever discovered about it, and there was certainly no cure. Everyone was just trying to survive a little longer in a dying world.

At one point, communications were tried between America and the other countries, but after receiving no reply, we all just assumed we were all who was left. We were all alone in this, and so many had already been lost during just the prevention stages. Quinn would get angry that no one warned us about it coming over, but using energy on being upset over what's too late now only seemed like a waste. Not that I could blame her. I was angry too.

How long it took for the infection to take full effect was also a mystery to us. I don't know if any other information was gathered on this, and I'd read once that it only took a few days usually. But Quinn was still Quinn five months later.

"Do you ever think the test that showed you positive was a false read?" I heard my voice before I'd even processed that I was speaking. Almost immediately there was a hand over my mouth and a hiss in my ear.

"Shut up. You know you can't speak aloud while we're not in a shelter." I did know. I did. This was stupid to risk our lives over while we were out trying to find food and some sort of weapons, but... I'd been meditating on it a lot lately, and I just...

"I know," I whispered after pulling her hand away softly. It was the first time in a good while that I'd looked into her hazeled eyes. They'd lost some color now, and her sockets seemed sunken in more now. Due to lack of sleep, I'm sure. Or maybe... No. "But... What if it was a false positive, Quinn? It's been months now, and you're..."

"I've thought about it," she turned her gaze from mine. "I mean, of course I have. I thought I'd be dead by now or a mindless freak at least. But does it really matter? At this point? We aren't going to make it, Rachel. We aren't. Whether I become a zombie, or whatever those things are, or we're found by either side, or even just run out of food... We aren't going to make it. Not too much longer anyway."

And then it was back to not speaking. I'd lost all will to argue with her. I felt so helpless at this point, just hanging my head and trailing her footsteps. She'd taken over, somehow. Somehow being strong enough for the both of us. I don't see how she ever did it. But I'd just... shut down. And even knowing that, I couldn't ever find it in myself to do anything about it.


	4. Chapter 4

_Baby, baby, baby...  
Come with me instead._

At one point in our journey to... wherever we were headed, we found ourselves entering an old bar somewhere a few towns over. It was a rundown, must, old place, and it smelled worse inside then it did out. The windows were completely boarded, and with no one working for electricity anymore, what had been left was probably gone now considering the walls were lined with candles. At one end, there stood a man behind a bar cleaning a glass with a rag. And between him and us entering the front door stood people of all sorts- most of them men and most of them a little rough looking. To the right of us... an older woman on a stage, singing along to nothing.

Apparently they knew they were secure or else the noise would have attracted unwanted attention. Security meant two things- a temporary place to rest and an unnerving questioning of just how long it would last. But for the time being, we simply needed to rest.

Quinn pushed her way in, past groups and stragglers of the men around us, leading me a lot more gently by the hand than the stance she took to make it past everyone. I kept my head low and my my mouth shut- just as I was told. But I couldn't help my eyes from wandering over to the stage. It almost seemed to call to me, a feeling I hadn't had in such a long time. It made me almost sadder than anything else that had happened to us up until this point. Qunn must have sensed it too, because that's when her pulling got a little rougher.

I stood right beside her, one of my hand clenching her top almost like a child would, as she sweet talked her way into the bartender's heart and into us some free drinks. I wasn't normally one for alcohol, but when I saw the sweat off the glass hit the wooden counter top and my dry tongue failed to moisten my lips yet another time, I quickly gulped down the brownish liquid inside. It tasted bitter and burnt as it when down, but soon my glass was being refilled. As I brought the glass to my lips again, I felt Quinn's hand over the lip, a small shake of her head coming as my eyes peered over.

"You haven't drank anything in awhile, and you haven't eaten much today either. You don't want to make yourself sick." And then she was sitting on a stool in front of her own glass, sighing and looking down into her drink.

I nodded gratefully, sitting beside her on a stool that creaked as I added my weight to it. Looking over at her, I breathed my first real sigh of relief since that day. For now, at least, we were safe.

And that was when we heard the gunshots. We knew it couldn't last.

_Baby, baby, baby..._

Quinn grabbed my arm just as I swallowed the last of my drink, not wanting to waste any of the cool liquid, and she began dragging me towards the back of the building. Grabbing old, green blankets off of a couch we found back there, she threw them over us- my small frame and then hers. "Stay quiet, Rachel." She pulled my blanket up like a hood soon after I'd nodded. And with the sounds of shouts behind us, another gunshot so close it made my ears ring a bit, we slipped out through a back door that we got lucky on being there. Right as we left, I could have sworn I heard someone ask about harboring any infected...

_Come with me instead.  
__Baby, baby baby.  
__You can't because you're dead.._


	5. Chapter 5

Since the army all but gave up on trying to fight all of the infected out of the majority of the area and the government had stopped funding ways to cure the infection, hordes of lawless people were gathering together and calling themselves the Cleaners. Cleaners were ruled by no one but themselves, according to their mottos, but everyone knew that there had to be a brains somewhere in all this madness. They acted without tactic and without warning. Groups of them traveled together with weapons of all sorts and attacked civilians as they pleased. Claiming to be ridding the world of the infected, at first, no one argued with them. Now no one argued with them because it was almost certain to be a death sentence. We had never personally run across any Cleaners so far on our trip. That is, until we went into that bar...

According to their radio frequency, the only one that bothered playing anymore, the attack on the building had not been random. An older woman by the name of Sybil was said to be hiding out there under her son's protection- he was heading the business, saying to help any travelers who needed him. Somehow news had gotten back to the Cleaners of her harboring, and therefore an attack had been issued in secrecy. But with it being the Cleaners attacking, no one was going to be leaving there alive- infected or not.

According to the station, Sybil had wanted to live out her last few moments in her right mind up on the stage that she grew up performing on, and that was why she and her son, Marc, never left the old building to be taken by the infected or anyone else who may have wanted to settle there. She'd made an agreement with Marc that when the time finally came, he was to end her life before her mind was lost to the infection. The broadcast never told how she'd become infected in the first place, and I wondered just how much this old woman had seen in her lifetime...

When the Cleaners raided the bar and Quinn and I headed out the back, apparently Marc was the first to confront them. They stated their business, and before they could notice the old woman on stage, Marc pulled his gun. One gunshot and Sybil fell to the ground. After that... Everything just broke loose. And that's all the broadcast had to say.

So many innocent people dead because of a mercy killing between mother and son.

Quinn lead us out of the small town and back into the woods that surrounded the roads that headed out. We kept our heads low and the blankets we'd taken up over us. The old, green color of the fabric acted as a perfect camouflage in the dense trees, which I thought about being useful in the future. Quinn had warned me multiple times before about becoming distracted for even a moment when we were making our way from one place to another with all of the hunters and infected about, and I knew better by this point. Yet this split second of actually thinking of the future, like we were actually going to make it another day, and I was paying dearly for it. My foot hit a root that was protruding from the ground, and with a loud thud, I had fallen. Quinn looked back quickly and froze.

My breath caught as I saw the look on her face change from anger to horror, and after swallowing the thick feeling in my throat, I slowly turned my head towards the direction her eyes were in. There, not a hundred yards from us, was an infected man feeding on the carcass of something that he held in his hands. Time seemed to stop all around us as his head jerked to look me in the eyes. Or... it would have seemed that way. He stayed still for just long enough for me to make out that he had no eyes. Instead, veins hung from his otherwise empty sockets and bugs flew and crawled all around his face. He couldn't see us. After a moment that felt like hours, he went back to his meal and paid us no mind.

Without breathing and without taking my eyes off of him, I quietly stood to find Quinn had moved silently and was now right beside me. She took my hand, a little too hard, and we tiptoed away from the infected man as quickly as silence would allow. Perhaps I shouldn't have been looking to the future. It didn't seem like I had one to look towards.


	6. Chapter 6

I can't recall a time I'd ever been used before- not like this. I can't remember a time that anyone had gone out of their way to make me feel a certain way so that they felt better about themselves- unless you count all of the bullying, which I can only account to jealousy and people needing to feel better about themselves by putting others down. But nothing like this before. It'd been... how long now? I don't even know. Keeping track of the days was nearly impossible now. Days and nights seemed to blend together when everything was dark around you all of the time inside abandoned buildings or in dense woods. But I suppose it'd been more than enough time to get lonely, to need someone, to miss those we'd lost. Still... I never expected to be used as a substitute for him.

Back in the days of regularly attending high school without any worries of a disease we still knew little about, Quinn Fabray was the most popular girl there. Head cheerleader, football star boyfriend, teacher's pet, straight A student- even I can't imagine how she did it all and managed to keep a balanced social life. She seemed to have it all. I never knew much about her home life, but from what I'd heard, her family was one of the wealthier ones, one of those perfect families that always hosted dinner parties and had everything together. I never believed that any family could really be perfect, but if they weren't, the Fabray family never showed it even a little bit. To have all of that taken away from her now, I suppose... It can do a lot to a person.

I imagined that was a big cause to her shutting down about a lot of things when this all started.

It didn't take long after the outbreak to hear our families named one-by-one and then all of our friends and classmates on the list of names of those deceased in Lima. With every name, I felt my body tremor; I couldn't stop the tears. Quinn, on the other hand... Quinn never shed a tear. I don't know how she did it. She never opened up about anything but especially about her feelings towards losing everyone she'd once known and loved. I can't imagine how she felt when she heard the boy she loved named or her mother, then father, then sister, then nephew. I had only a couple of friends- one or two that hadn't even been named. With one father already gone, hearing the other named had done me in for days, halting our movement for that time. She didn't seem angry about that then like she does with everything now, so I assumed she understood and empathized enough. But... Still she never took a single minute to herself to grieve or even speak about it.

So after all of this time, I can't even say if I saw this coming or if I didn't.

It was broadcast not too long after the infections started that one of the key roles to staying healthy from this disease spreading was to wash as often as possible. With no running water anywhere anymore, it seemed almost impossible to use precious, clean, drinking water on something as silly as bathing, but Quinn insisted. She said once that she wasn't risking me turning. And so whenever we came across a creek or something of the sort, we stopped, took turns keeping guard, and bathing in private. To tell the truth, it was nice. It was a sense of normalcy in all of the chaos.

One afternoon, after she'd bathed herself, Quinn left me to go keep guard. I didn't waste any time stripping of my clothing and wading into the flowing water, shivering at the cool sensation but not hesitating to submerge myself completely. When I resurfaced, I began my routine of washing from head to toe, starting with my hair and working my way down as to get every inch of skin to remove as much dirt as possible. And for the first time in a very, very long time, I heard Quinn giggle.

Not expecting it, I turned towards the noise quickly, covering myself with my hands and sinking lower into the water. Realizing it was her watching me, I felt my face go warm as I pouted. "Aren't you supposed to be keeping guard?" I kept my voice just loud enough for her to hear. "What if you'd been an infected or a Cleaner?"

"And your first defense is to be modest?" She sat on the bank of the river and put her elbows on her knees.

"Why are you over here, Quinn? Didn't I pay you the respect of privacy?" It was odd. It was more than odd. Not just that Quinn was being... sociable? But that Quinn Fabray was... watching me bathe.

"I had a thought." She said simply.

When she didn't continue, I pressed. "And...? And it couldn't have waited just a little longer?"

She brushed the damp hair clinging to her face away with her hand before standing again- actually grinning. It was nice, but... I couldn't help but be suspicious of this new behavior. It wasn't the infection getting to her brain was it..? "You missed a spot," she spoke again, breaking my train of thought.

I gave her a confused look and lifted on of my hands to my face, the only part I couldn't really see and was most likely where she meant.

She laughed. Quinn laughed. Quinn Fabray laughed. But then the next thing I knew, she was dropping her shirt to the ground and wading into the water with me.

"Quinn!" I hissed, and fell back beneath the water until I felt it lapping at my face. "Quinn, what are you-?" But then she was in front of me, gently placing her hands under my arms and slowly lifting me back above the surface. I suddenly felt so embarrassed I could have cried. It's been an apocalyptic world for us. It isn't as if proper grooming was on either of our top list of concerns, and now Quinn was standing very close to me, and we were both naked in a river. ...What was happening?

She lifted a hand to my face and hesitated at my chin for a moment before lifting a finger to my forehead. "Right here," she said gently. "You missed a spot here." She wiped at the spot with her fingers, and I watched curiously as a small grin spread across her face.

I suppose that was the start of it all- as big a start as that seemed to me. After that it was using the reasoning that we needed to keep warm as she cuddled into my back at night. A few nights of that, and I started noting an arm being draped over me. It was even more blatant motions of her wanting to check an area first or always double checking that whatever weapon I had at the time was in proper working order. It turned into always having me carry the one gun we had between us, and her constantly checking to make sure that it was loaded. It became her speaking to me more, and oddly enough, once confessing that she missed hearing me sing. She had me promise to sing to just her once we were safe.

It was... nice enough, I suppose. But it was so unlike her that eventually I just... "Quinn."

We were in the middle of an abandoned town, empty as far as the eye could see. Probably one of the safest places we'd been in a very long time. We'd been spending the past few nights here, but the still edible food supply at the nearby market was depleting quickly. So we were scouting for more on this day. But after being handed extra portions and her actually finding a razor that we took advantage of to feel some sense of the norm again, enough was enough with no explanation.

"Rach?" She turned towards me slightly. Another thing that had started. Since when did we come to terms with nicknames that weren't insulting to me? "Is something wrong?"

"There is." I stood up straighter, and yet my eyes still fell to the ground. I took a deep breath and let my eyelids slide shut before I spoke again. "You need to tell me what it is exactly that you're doing. It's really been nice and all, but... It isn't because your mind is becoming infected and somehow having this odd positive perspective on me, is it? This isn't like you at all, and I for one-"

She was always interrupting me.

But never before with a kiss.

I jumped and pushed her back. "Quinn!" This was too much. This was all way too much.

"Come on, Rach," she spoke softly, making an attempt to reach for my hand, which I quickly jerked away from. She sighed. "Tell me that over all this time, you haven't felt us getting closer. Tell me the truth. Tell me that you haven't thought about it at least once?"

If I were to be completely honest, I had. But not for a very long time. And not since all of this started happening. And to continue telling the truth... "I know what this is," I didn't even realize I'd began speaking, and it was so quite, I wasn't entirely certain she could even hear me now. "You're using me. You're lonely, and you're... trying to replace what you had, but, Quinn... I'm not..."

I think we were both crying now.

And after that, she stayed on the first floor of the building; I on the second. There were no cuddles, no baths together. There wasn't even any speaking or eye contact. We scouted alone at different times. We kept watch in silence.

Quinn was the prettiest girl I'd ever seen, and she was smart and talented at that. I was always taught to keep an open mind about everything in life, and after kissing Jesse St. James and not only feeling nothing but almost... repulsed, yes, of course my mind strayed back to the little schoolgirl crush I'd slowly been developing on Quinn for months then. But... This is not the way I wanted anything between us to happen. And if it was the only way I was to feel her again...? ...I'd almost just rather not.


	7. Chapter 7

Breathe in. Breathe out. Slowly. In through the nose. Out through the mouth. Close one eye. Don't lock your arms up. Keep our feet firm. Breathe in. Breathe out. Shoulders relaxed. Not too relaxed. Aim for the head. Don't make a sound. Don't take your eyes off the target. Don't freeze up. Breathe in. Breathe out. Take your time. Don't take too much time. Every second, you're in danger. Think. Think clearly. Think quickly. Steady now. Breathe in.

Pull the trigger.

It'd been nine months now- I think- since Quinn left out on her own when I decided to join with the camp of refugees that we happened to come across. I tried to get her to stay with me, the first time we'd spoken in weeks, where we would be safe and have food and clean water, but she just shook her head. The only thing she had to say about the situation is that she doubted that they would want an infected in their ranks. And then she took half of what we'd kept with us and headed out into the fog one evening. She was gone. I thought about going after her, I thought about her not making it out there alone, but something stopped me. Or... Should I say someone stopped me.

The night that we came across the camp, we'd accidentally drawn the attention of a group of infected a few miles away in the middle of nowhere. We knew it'd been a risky choice to make in the first place, but with all of the debris and the Cleaners broadcast announcing that they would be not too far away from us, we took our chances on the empty highway into the next town. Just like we'd guessed, we were ambushed. I owed Quinn my life yet again for that one. With her quick instincts, she managed to not only prevent herself from being bitten, she also saved me from the man that had come up behind me. Just when I thought her was about to sink his teeth into my neck, there she was. With a bullet through his head. We fled. Blindly. We hoped we were still on the right track, but after the encounter, we'd lost our sense of direction that we were barely clinging to as it was. The infected pursued us a bit further before a truck came rolling up in front of us with a few armed people jumping out to take care of the ones chasing us. We were invited back for a hot meal, and it was more than a welcomed invitation. We were able to eat and clean ourselves up and be secure for the night.

It appeared to be an old motel that had somehow been turned into a base of sorts with barbed wire and a large metal gate surrounded with abandoned RVs and guard towers made out of wood that they must have built themselves. Thanks to a generator they powered with the gas from the abandoned vehicles, they even had electricity. It was heaven compared to the wasteland we'd been stuck in all this time.

And that's when we were taken to see the leader of this little campsite. If I hadn't seen it for myself, I still wouldn't have believed someone f they'd told me.

Lately my thoughts ventured back to Quinn quite frequently. In this quiet time, it was surprising to think of how much I'd been confused on everything. I had to piece things together; I had to remember. If I forgot, then it would all have been for nothing. I remembered back to when we first were alone together. How back then, I hadn't questioned her moving close to me at night, holding me. I thought of how different it felt the last time, so much so that I'd even forgotten that it used to be the norm. She'd gotten so distant over our time together, I supposed it was just something my mind let slip. I had to ask myself why I questioned it now but back then... I just fell into her. I'd let her use me before, but... Perhaps the whole bath thing was just what planted the seed of confusion. I couldn't honestly tell anymore.

I closed my eyes. I'd been remembering her as the cheerleader with her shiny, blonde hair and boyfriend Finn Hudson that she intended to share prom royalty with our senior year, but... That wasn't it, was it? This wasn't the same Quinn I'd been thinking of this entire time. The pink had long since faded from her hair, and she hadn't been trying to find more cigarettes for months now. I guess in my mind it was just hard to keep everything apart now. But no, that's right. This was the newer Quinn. The one that a lot of the old glee club didn't always approve of. This was the Quinn that found me when I was alone to check up on how everyone was doing. Had so much really happened that I forgot about ho she'd become? Perhaps if I'd had this time before, I wouldn't have left her to her own devices now. She was alone. And I was selfish.

It was actually coming to this place that reminded me of so much. Not just the time to think, but someone who could actually remember had taken the time to talk to me and tell me what they remembered and how much it really varied from my own story. You see, when we arrived here, we were brought to the founder and leader of the small camp. Our jaws dropped in unison as she emerged from her tent, head shaved to only show dark roots against her head, a large gun swung over her back and a knife stuck in a sheath on her right leg. Santana Lopez stood before us with a look that quickly changed from the same shock on our faces to a smirk that I couldn't tell what meant exactly.

"Well, well, well. Q and Man Hands. Isn't this a surprise?" There were unexpected hugs and laughs, and our first night there was joining her in her tent for some nasty brown liquid that had us all drunk fairly quickly. They laughed at me for a portion of the night and teased about how I should have been more adventurous in high school. And then once everyone was rosy cheeked and slurring words, Santana let slip the one secret she and I both agreed to take to our graves.

"Do you remember," she spoke between a few more drinks, "how in high school, you found me and Brit in the girl's locker room, Berry? Yeah, remember? We'd just gotten into that huge fight, and there you were in your tiny underwear and nothing covering your tiny, tiny boobs." She laughed so hard she spilled some of her drink on her arm which she then proceeded to lick up.

Perhaps if my mind hadn't been swimming, my reaction would have been more tactful. But instead I was holding a finger to my lips and letting out a loud shushing noise as I looked from her to Quinn and back while trying to hold back my giggling. Quinn didn't look so amused already. "We promised not to tell anyone about all of that, do _you_ remember?"

Without going into any further details on this end, Santana went into every detail on her end. And this was how Quinn found out that after Santana and Brittany S. Pierce had their biggest argument ever that left them both single and heartbroken, I had somehow found myself becoming Santana's rebound. Now, there was a lot more to this story. It began with Brittany running off, and Santana noticing that I'd been looking over at them while I was trying to change back into my school clothes from being in gym class. The next thing I knew, I'd been pinned against a wall and was being threatened. But somehow Santana took the time in between her threats to crudely look over my body, which I could only hide so much of, and give me that same, trademark smirk.

She didn't fail to mention every detail of our first night together either. It began with her threatening me with even harsher bullying for the rest of my life until I agreed to come over to one of the only other times I'd been drunk in my life. And being in this drunk state, truth or dare became the name of the game for the night. And she certainly didn't fail to mention how while playing this, she'd somehow gotten it out of me that not only had I'd had feelings for a girl before, but pointed her finger right into Quinn's chest and snickered before informing her that it'd been her.

Blushing so hard that I was sure my face was to melt off soon, I somehow managed to take this time to look over at Quinn just in time to see her lower her glass and give me a look that I still can't decipher. Eyes squinted at me and her mouth opened a little, all she said was, "Really?" so quietly that I almost thought I'd misheard until Santana spoke up again.

"Oh, Q. This girl had it bad for you. She went on and on about how pretty you were and how kind you'd been to her over the years- even though I always thought we were into tormenting her together. On and on and on, I swear to god. Before finally she gets all depressed about everything and starts _crying,_ and saying how none of it mattered because she could never tell you, and you'd never accept it, and blah blah blah. God, the only way I could get her to shut up finally was to kiss her damn mouth. And after that, I don't know. I guess it just became a thing." She laughed again and threw her arm around Quinn who was still looking over at me with that look that finally sent my eyes down to the glass clutched in my hands. "I told her if she ever told anyone, I'd kill her, but I guess all of that doesn't really matter now, since we're all dead anyway."

Finally, Quinn seemed to have had enough. She slammed her glass down on the small table we'd been using to pour drinks on and left us without saying anything. Later that night when I tried to return to the motel room Santana had said for us to feel free to use, the door had been locked, and Quinn didn't ever answer after all of my knocking and pleading. And so somehow I was staying the night with Santana in her tent that apparently she'd offered to take so that there was enough room for everyone else in her camp.

And maybe it was still the alcohol in my system, but yet again, when her lips found mine and her hand found my thighs that night, I didn't refuse. Just like the first time. Santana had my body; Quinn had my heart. It was just like high school all over again.


	8. Chapter 8

The next morning, I awoke with heavy eyelids, a groggy demeanor, and a splitting headache. Blinking a few times, I looked over and thought I saw Quinn lying beside me, but after a few blinks, I sighed. I thought all of this had been a dream. I prayed that all of this had been a dream, but soon all of my memories came flooding in so fast that the pain collecting right behind my eyes made me fear I may lose them for a moment. Santana Lopez of all people. ...But in some ways it made perfect sense. Of course Santana would be the one that a zombie apocalypse couldn't kill. Of course Santana would be the only one cruel enough to get me drunk and basically control me for sex the first time and also find time to get Quinn and I both drunk when the world was ending outside her little tent. And of course Santana would be the one who seemed strong and comforting enough in a situation like this to have me drop all morals and do it again. Of course. It could only be Santana Lopez.

Gathering up the thin sheet that was atop me, I covered myself and began looking through the dust in the air to find where my clothing had gotten off to as quietly as I could while trying my hardest not to disturb the other girl who was now mumbling in her sleep about Brittany. Of course. This was Santana. I bit my lip and cursed myself silently. That's all I ever was anymore it felt like. Someone to be used. Again and again. The world goes to hell, an suddenly it's an alright thing to do. I held my head in my hand for a moment and took some deep breaths as not to start crying. After a long pause, I began my search again, only to notice a little, red notebook on Santana's other side that was simply marked "Glee Club".

Curiosity got the better of me, and before I knew it, I was slowly and silently reaching over the sleeping girl to grab it and return to my spot as quickly as possible. But once I'd opened it's weathered and worn pages, the tears I'd been holding back began to flow freely, stinging my face as they fell.

Finn Hudson- Deceased- Shot in raid on school  
Rachel Berry- Unknown  
Kurt Hummel- Deceased- Unknown  
Blaine Anderson- Deceased- Suicide  
Mercedes Jones- Unknown- Infected  
Noah Puckerman- Deceased- Shot trying to save Finn  
Quinn Fabray- Unknown- Infected (?)  
Tina Cohen-Chang- Deceased- Died from infection  
Mike Chang- Alive- Cleaner  
Sam Evans- Deceased- Killed by Cleaners  
Will Schuester- Deceased- Suicide

"I couldn't bring myself to write Brittany's name in there," I heard a raspy voice from beside me that startled me so much I dropped the book to my lap. Santana sat up on her elbows and let her head fall back to stare at the top of the tent. "She and I were gonna make it. We were so sure... But Brit was infected. We knew it from the beginning. 'We'll find a cure' we kept telling each other. Bullshit." She lit a cigarette from the pack on the ground beside her. Blowing smoke as she spoke, she shook her head. "She never stood a chance. I had to... Well, I was the one who shot her in the end. Thought about shooting myself right afterward, but... No more bullets."

"Santana, I..."

She stopped me. Not that I knew where I was going to go from that. "Go find Q. Take her these." She handed me an unopened pack of cigarettes. "Nasty shit, but... She'll be thankful for them. Now go on. Get out of here." Without another word, she was turned away from me and staring at the pages of the notebook. I opened my mouth as if to say something else, but... I knew there was nothing more to add to things.

After finally getting dressed and flattening my hair the best I could, I took the cigarettes and made my way back to the motel room Quinn had spent the night in. Expecting for it to have been the same as last night, I was surprised when I got to the door and found it slightly open. "Quinn...?" I poked my head in a little. "Quinn, may we speak?"

She was there throwing things into a large bag. "Get your stuff together. We're leaving." She didn't look up at me as she spoke. "You smell like smoke." I tossed her the pack of cigarettes, watching them land on the bed in front of her, and watched as she paused, eyes widened a little, before picking them up. "Holy shit." She struck a match from the bag she'd been packing as inhaled deeply on the cigarette she'd stuck between her teeth. She closed her eyes a moment and seemed to be savoring one of the few pleasures she still had in this world. "Disgusting", she breathed, smiling. It hurt my heart.

"What did you mean... we're leaving?" I asked after letting her enjoy her moment a bit longer. I walked over towards her slowly and sat down gently on the bed. "Are we not staying here? Santana said that we could, and, Quinn, there's food and-"

"I don't really give a damn what Santana said. We don't need her or this place, Rach. Can we please just... I'm leaving. You can stay if you'd like, but I'm not stopping until we find someone with an actual cure to this infection. Not some... momentary fix." With the stick between her lips, she continued shoving things into her bag, a little angrier this time if I had to guess.

That was the last time I saw her. We fought a little bit, but I can't remember now what all we even said to each other. She yelled for me to just leave then, and so I did at one point. Both of us too stubborn to apologize or anything, Santana had to be the one to tell me that one of the guards had let Quinn past the gate late that night. And so she was gone. I had no idea what direction she was even headed in. I doubt she wanted me changing my mind and tagging along after her anyhow...

After that I stayed in her room; the pillows smelled ever so faintly of her. She must have been holding them. Quinn never slept on a pillow. It made me smile to picture, but... it also brought even more tears to my eyes. I didn't spend another night with Santana, and I had no intentions of ever doing so again. Now wasn't the time for that nonsense as it was. She had me assigned to scavenging duties, and now here I was, armed and in the higher parts of a tree, aimed down into a horde of infected who'd surrounded a local super market where Santana said she had information claiming it was filled with food and medication that we needed. Breathe in. Breathe out. That's when I saw him.

"Jesse...?"


	9. Chapter 9

I remember she even when she joined our little glee club for her own, selfish reasons. She wouldn't acknowledge me unless she was going out of her way to make my life just a bit more miserable. And she wouldn't even attempt to do so if she didn't know for a fact that she could. No, she sat in the back with the other girls in matching uniform, filing at her nails with her high ponytail so tight on her head that sometimes I wondered if they did it so their skin seemed firmer, and she stayed quiet otherwise. Every now and again you could hear her laughing with the blonde girls of her same social status. Every now and again she would smile or flirt with the boys that were there. That was it. It was a presence that you felt, and she didn't even have to do anything. I didn't hate people. But I hated her for it.

But now, as I watched her lie in the shadows, her breathing a little shallow and her tanned skin covered in dirt and her hair piled around her in a dark halo, she almost seemed like a normal person- no longer the cold soul that everyone began to associate her with, the scowl she usually wore gone without even a trace left… It was strange to see. The tears in her clothing showed where her once flawless skin was covered in either the brown of dried blood or the silvery-white of healing scars. The cut above her lip seemed so unnatural on her face.

I broke my gaze only for a moment to see if her attacker had stumbled off in another direction after he'd gotten back up from the blow to the back of his head. My upper body strength wasn't much, but in the adrenaline rush, I'd managed a swift hit and had her dragged behind the counter in a matter of moments. To be honest enough, I wasn't even sure that was what had happened anymore. It all seemed more a blur. I didn't see him now though, and praying silently that he was gone- for now at least- I pushed myself to all fours and sneaked around the broken glass strewn across the floor. There had to be bandages around here somewhere. There just had to be. It was a convenient store after all, and nothing would be more convenient in this moment than bandages and rubbing alcohol. And, for her sake, perhaps drinking alcohol would be great in this case as well.

It was also a blur to me how we got here, when I tried to think about it. And it certainly wasn't a time to think back to high school days spent being tortured by the only two people I'd really spent any time with since the outbreak. What good could possibly come from that now? If anything, I was going to get us both killed. Of all people to see here, infected and shambling about like that, and it had to be Jesse. And I froze. And even when she tried to shoot, I couldn't let her. I think she managed to find a way to sneak down from the roof, but... How had all of this happened? And so quickly. Here she was, dying, and over the radio of another fallen member of our group who was seeming to reanimate right in front of me, I listened as the base we'd been calling home was overrun by a horde no one saw coming. Quinn had been right. It was only a temporary fix to a problem that was going to haunt us and only get worse. I'd stayed because I thought, just maybe, we could pretend to be happy in all of this, but...

Quinn, where are you?


	10. Chapter 10

It was rather dark out when Santana was shaking my shoulders to wake me from my sleep. Groggily, I meant to sit up and speak, but a hand clamped across my mouth as it opened, and I was being pushed back to the cold floor. As my eyes finally focused in the dark, I made out Santana's figure and managed to see her finger across her lips as if telling me to stay quiet. I shook her hand away and furrowed my brow before she looked past me. I followed her gaze to where a woman's figure stood in the dark not too far from where we'd been lying.

She swayed on her feet and a growling noise was coming from her direction. I don't think she'd noticed us yet. It was too dark to see if we'd recognize her- though I wasn't even sure which town we were in now. It felt as though we'd been walking forever, but I doubted we'd gotten very far from Lima with everything around us. I couldn't even make out her age, not to mention what she was doing standing there. Though, from the smell and constant incoherent grumbling, it was clear to say that she was past saving.

I looked back to Santana the same time she looked at me. I wondered if my eyes asked what we were supposed to do, but whatever hers said was a mystery to me. She shook her head a tiny bit and reached for the gun at her side slowly. I leaned towards her a bit, giving her a face that I knew she would understand. The noise of a gunshot would only bring more of them here. We couldn't risk it. The look she sent back my way seemed to ask for other option, but having none, I simply shook my head a little before I looked back over at the woman.

I felt Santana's hand pat the back of mine gently, as to reassure me, but I didn't look back at her then. I licked my lips and inhaled deeply, holding my breath there. I heard the quiet click as Santana cocked the gun carefully, something she'd learned after all of this had started, I think. Stealth was a main issue, though after this, I was sure we were going to have to make a run for it.

I closed my eyes tightly and covered my ears in anticipation, but the shot never came. In its place, I heard a girl scream.

Santana fell back silently and stayed rigid beside me as the woman she'd just been aiming at reeled towards the door. With a grunt, she began her limping back down the stairs to her right and out of the room. After a few beats to make sure she was really gone, I exhaled, my lungs beginning to ache from the captured breath. Santana laid a hand on me as if to say for me to stay there, but stubbornly, I sat up with her. She shot me a look, but got to her feet quietly. Crouching, I watched her figure move towards the only window of the room where the boards were beginning to fall apart at.

Hurriedly, she waved me over, and I was there a moment later looking out at what she'd seen. A girl about our age was running down the street away from the things that chased her. Unsure of why she'd screamed in the first place, I watched intently as she tried door after door of the nearby places, all locked. And it was as she fell that I knew we had to be the ones to do something, anything.

I stood quickly and grabbed at the gun that Santana had been holding previously when her hand shot out of nowhere and grabbed my wrist.

"We don't have the ammo to save her or ourselves if we go out there. Better her than all of us," she spoke quietly with no shown emotion. Shaking her head, she took the gun away from me.

"We can't just sit here and do nothing while a girl is killed," I hissed, standing and grabbing the knife at my hip instead. I was at the staircase when she spoke again.

"We aren't heroes, Brittany!"

It was a quiet, stern yell. And it stopped me short.

Another scream from outside and our eyes tore away from each other. Santana shook her head and moved away from the window. "She's gone," was all she whispered as she moved to gather what things we still had.

After a few moments, she realized I was still standing there, unmoving from the last time. "Come on. We need to move while they're still… feeding."

I swallowed hard and moved to her side to gather what little things we had. I didn't speak, and neither did she. We made our way out into the night and moved opposite of where we'd seen the girl and into the woods again, pretending everything would be okay again if we just kept moving.

"Look…" Santana didn't lookback at me as she finally spoke quietly a few hours later when she'd crouched down at a river to drink as I stood a few paces behind. "About back there…"

Before she could go any further, a hand was clamping onto my shoulder, and I was being spun around to meet two eyes- one a pale yellow-y, milk-y film; the other a dull, hollow hazel. My body stiffened, not the proper reaction to have when you could have been killed in a matter of seconds in this world, and I stood there trying to comprehend the situation when the eyes vanished and I was being hugged tightly, a head buried in my neck. "Rach..." A small voice managed to choke out. "You're alive."


End file.
